A new pickleball court has surfaced in Irrigon.
The Irrigon Pickleball Club is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, Nov. 9, at 1 p.m. for the grand opening of Irrigon Community Courts, east of Marina Park off Northeast 12th Street.
Irrigon Pickleball Club Vice President Bobbie Veatch said the event will provide free hot dogs, sides, cake, water and a demonstration for people who are interested to learn how to play the game.
“We are so happy with all the support,” Veatch said. “We ask everybody to come down and join us in this wonderful celebration.”
The local picklehead players first started hosting games in 2013 at A.C. Houghton Elementary School with five to eight players. Through the years more athletes joined the group, and in 2018 they formed the Irrigon Pickleball Club.
“I enjoy the team, the competitiveness, the teamwork and the sport,” Veatch said. “We have players of all ages that can play from teenagers up to 83.”
Veatch said the club has 55 members. As the number of tournaments and players grew, Veatch added, the pickleball group needed better turf to play.
The club decided to start raising funds to build a pickleball court, Veatch said.
“We started collecting bottles and cans,” she said. “We did plant and garage sales. We went out and asked for donations. And throughout all that, I mean, we didn’t know how much they were going to cost. We raised up to $12,000.”
The club recognized it needed a significantly larger amount of funding to get a pickleball court built.
